History of KWN

KWN (Kid Witness News) program started with 19 public schools in the United States in 1989. During the 1990´s, the program spread throughout the U.S. and Canada, and with the dawn of the 21st century, the expansion reached a global scale.
From around 2005 onward, workshops were organized to present kids with video shooting and film-making lessons by professionals. 2014 marked the 25th anniversary of KWN. It’s our sincere wish that the program’s global exchange activities continue to expand with the participation of children from even more countries and regions.

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1989

The KWN program started in the United States.

1991

KWN began in Canada.

2002

KWN programs were launched in Europe, and Asia.

2003

KWN programs were launched in Japan.

2004

International Award established. At this point, an accumulated total of more than 70,000 children had participated from around the world.

2005

An "EXPO 2005 Special Contest" was held in conjunction with the "EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan".

2006

An official "KWN Forum" started on the Internet.

2007

International exchanges among KWN schools increased.

2008

The annual KWN Global Contest was officially established.

2009

KWN's 20th anniversary

2010

Video archive site with a search engine "KWN Global Library" was launched.
An International exchange using Panasonic’s HD Visual Communication System was held between Japan and Canada.

2011

KWN Global Contest Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood, U.S.A.

2012

KWN Global Contest Awards ceremony was held in London, U.K

2013

KWN Global Contest Global Awards Ceremony was held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.

2014

KWN’s 25th anniversary

The 2014 KWN Global Contest Global Awards Ceremony was held at the Panasonic Corporation of North America Headquarters in Newark, New Jersey. The United States is the original home of KWN which started 25 years ago.
Number of kids that have participated - a total of 180,000As of August 2016, Kids from more than 553 schools in 19 countries/region have participated. The number of children cultivating their communication skills and learning the importance of teamwork by creating KWN videos is increasing by 5,000 to 10,000 annually.

2015

KWN Global Contest Global Awards Ceremony was held in Singapore for the first time in Asia, commemorating Singapore National Foundation 50th Year.

2016

KWN Global Contest Global Awards Ceremony was held in Rio du Janeiro in Brazil, in the special support of International Paralympic Committee.

2017

KWN Global Summit 2017 and Global Awards Ceremony were hold in Tokyo, to give the opportunity for the children in the world to think about future in the concept was "To Create Our Future Together".

2018

KWN Japan’s 15th anniversary

The KWN Global Contest 2018, KWN Global Summit 2018, and Global Awards Ceremony were held in Tokyo.

2019

KWN’s 30th anniversary

The Global Contest Award Week 2019 and KWN Global Summit 2019 were held in Tokyo.

2020

The Global Summit was held online for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With Panasonic Center TOKYO as the key station, connecting all the countries online, participants learned about the SDGs and tried their hand at animation filmmaking workshops.

2021

The event was held online for the second time. New initiatives included a supportive participation program and the KWN Fans Award.

2022

KWN Global Summit 2022 was held online. In addition to the existing KWN Kids Award and KWN Fans Award, the Panasonic Award, which is voted on by Panasonic employees, was also added.

2023

KWN Japan’s 20th anniversary

KWN Global Summit 2023 was held online. For the 2023 event, over 3,000 children from 200 teams from 9 countries around the world, including Brazil, China, Cambodia, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Japan, the United States, and Vietnam, took part in the video production project.

2024

KWN’s 35th anniversary

History of KWN

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